The question - "is it good or bad that the GOP can't understand what they're doing wrong" - is interesting. I think it's "bad" in the sense that it would be actually good if they internalized anything postive. It's "good" in the sense that most of us have the intuition that they won't internalize anything - they'd just use any 'understanding' to get back to lying better, which unfortunately would help them win elections.

Like a lot of people, I listened to Rush Limbaugh the day after the election. Pure Schadenfreude, I admit it; I just wanted to hear the reaction. I searched the right-wing media landscape far and wide and tried to find even a hint of self-examination, self-criticism, and I didn't find much. Then again, they didn't lose the presidential vote by much, so they didn't take the election result as a total repudiation of their belief system, as they probably shouldn't have, anyway.

...

Similarly, the fact that so many Republicans this week think that all Hispanics care about is amnesty, all women want is abortions (and lots of them) and all teenagers want is to sit on their couches and smoke tons of weed legally, that tells you everything you need to know about the hopeless, anachronistic cluelessness of the modern Republican Party. A lot of these people, believe it or not, would respond positively, or at least with genuine curiosity, to the traditional conservative message of self-reliance and fiscal responsibility.

But modern Republicans will never be able to spread that message effectively, because they have so much of their own collective identity wrapped up in the belief that they're surrounded by free-loading, job-averse parasites who not only want to smoke weed and have recreational abortions all day long, but want hardworking white Christians like them to pay the tab. Their whole belief system, which is really an endless effort at congratulating themselves for how hard they work compared to everyone else (by the way, the average "illegal," as Rush calls them, does more real work in 24 hours than people like Rush and me do in a year), is inherently insulting to everyone outside the tent – and you can't win votes when you're calling people lazy, stoned moochers.

It's hard to say whether it's good or bad that the Rushes of the world are too clueless to realize that it's their attitude, not their policies, that is screwing them most with minority voters. If they were self-aware at all, Mitt Romney would probably be president right now. So I guess we should be grateful that the light doesn't look like it will ever go on. But wow, is their angst tough to listen to.

1. I listen to Rush

a lot during lunch at work...a while back in the midst of his self centered praise about himself, about the job creators, the hard workers who build businesses and the moochers and constant ripping of the POTUS....he took a call that revealed something to me.... now this wing bag vets his calls so cant really get on and debate him....however he took this one caller that asked him if he was a hard worker....just simply 'Rush do you consider yourself a hard worker?'....the response was 'PRICELESS' . You had to be listening to hear the quiet silence of him thinking about it....then the responses with the occasional stuttering on words...he had a hard time justifying the reply...the caller was a female and apparently a fan so they went back and forth with her trying to prop him up... ..i could tell it shook him and he wasn't sure if he had hoodwinked everyone with his response and logic....he even came on the next day and brought it up. As you know though in his lunatic mind he's a hard worker sitting behind a mike spewing rhetoric and bigotry as he continues reaping big advertising dollars with the 'demagoguery' if you will.../C

7. NeedleFinder is pretty cool, but if I recall I got mine from something with "stereo" and "online"...

... in the name. It's probably bookmarked but I've got a few hundred bookmarks so I'm not sure. It's amazing what a new needle will do for a turntable!!! Of course, I also bought a record cleaning kit at the same time. The cleaning brush on my old one is totally worn out and lost in the basement in some box. I got a lot of my classical vinyl from the library when they were liquidating their stock - like ten cents an album!!! I bought a lot of them, but most of them were in serious need of a good cleaning. Fingerprints everywhere. There are a few hisses and pops from scratches, but overall they were (and are) in great condition.

8. On a recent CSI episode they claimed that you could use glue to clean an album.

I think it was similar to wood glue. You would spread the glue over the surface of the album and let it dry. Then they used a box cutter to lift an edge of the glue and pealed it off leaving a like-new LP. Weird, huh?

9. I don't think I'd trust that method. It sounds risky both to the needle and the LP.

I work with wood a lot and I'm very familiar with white glue, wood glue, and spray on adhesives. They always leave residue. I know vinyl isn't porous like wood, but even on a laminated surface it's a bitch to get off. Vinyl has groves (sort of the point) and I wouldn't expect the glue to be fully removed in the manner described.

Then again, you are talking about CSI. I'm not sure I'd trust that as a reliable source. Aren't all of the actors too young to even know what an LP is?